Caucuses can be a chance to get a toehold against an established incumbent for candidates like Republican David Gerson of South St. Paul, who’s running to the right against U.S. Rep. John Kline in the Second Congressional District. But Gerson’s campaign coordinator, Marianne Stebbins, knows that asking supporters to turn out for a caucus is a big ask.
“It’s not just taking five minutes to go vote. You’re taking an evening out of your life, getting a baby sitter, going and sitting with your neighbors for a couple of hours to hash these things out, so it’s a much bigger commitment,” said Stebbins, who coordinated 2012 GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul’s massive Minnesota caucus effort. But, she said, “Isn’t it worth taking a couple of hours on an evening to make a difference and to try to turn back the tide?”
Most GOP gubernatorial candidates made the precinct rounds, with the exception of Honour, who said in a statement earlier that the caucuses were not part of his “victory strategy,” that he had devoted few resources to it and expected to make only a modest showing in the poll.
Until reading that, I was unaware of Gerson's ties to Stebbins and the Liberty wing of the GOP. All the more reason to favor him over "degree mill" Kline. The man is easy to dislike, and the Liberty Republicans have a sane war/military policy where Kline is old cold warrior, "I carried the nuclear football," brand. A stale brand, given all the Bushco failed war on the credit card approach to foreign policy. Let us hope Gerson did well in the caucus. I could not find any online reporting of GOP straw poll sentiment in CD2. Any reader with a link is asked to add a comment.
If only they embraced reproductive rights liberty of women and families, and had a heart on social programs, single payer, preservation of Social Security, anti-poverty assistance - things to which government should devote attention ... It would take a departure from Ron/Rand to adopt a new mood about family liberty of choice, but, why not? You are for liberty, or you oppose it, and family planning and decisions over family size and growth timing are fundamental to having economic freedom too. As is single payer freedom from dependence upon an employment situation that may pinch, vs worry over health compromise. Weakening the hold of conventional constraints on liberty is what the word is about. It has at some point in time to be realized by those who use "liberty" in regular speech.
______________UPDATE________________
Nothing found on any GOP CD2 straw polling. Was there any?
MNGOP pie charts, here. For guv and Senator.
PiPress.
West Central Tribune.
MN Progressive Project.
Gary Gross.
The GOP's pie charts show in ranked order: Siefert, Thompson, Johnson for guv; Ortman, McFadden, Abeler for Senator; Johnson at 17% and Abeler at 15% seem distant third place finishers. Ortman at 31% and Siefert at 29% show neither is decisively in charge. In CD6, the official pie chart reposted here, suggests it is OMG! Emmer's to open his mouth and lose. Thinking here is the handlers, Stanley Hubbard and friends, will gag him for the duration. Hubbard has money invested after all.
UPDATE: Reader help requested: Are the Niska spouses on board the OMG! Emmer bandwagon this year, or concentrating solely on McFadden's effort? Anyone having the answer is asked to leave a comment. Comment is welcome also on how the Ramsey GOP poobahs split, if they did on any of the races, during GOP precinct caucusing. Did Abeler do well in his own House district caucus, better than statewide, or are the veto override soreheads still sore?
In the Abeler House district, who is seeking that seat while Abeler [ostensibly] continues his run for higher office?
FURTHER UPDATE: The DFL precinct caucus I attended did no straw polling, and it appears to have been a DFL state-wide inner party decision to go that way. After all, no major DFL primary challenges are likely.
It would have been fun, however, to have held a "preference poll" over how we'd vote in crossing over during the sure to happen GOP primary, to monkey around among the ballot choices of sociopaths, misfits and complainers the GOP will be watching and choosing among in their primary, each GOP office seeker now either folding their hands or shifting into fight-club mode. It would have been amusing to see the GOP inner party speaking on their side, and the DFL on the same day caucusing on how to derail their opponents' train by primary ballot crossover choosing.
Now, we have no indication how crossover might play out when GOP primary voting happens. We have to wait and see.
Actually, of course, there will be no crossover vote to speak of, since those favoring the DFL are take-the-high-road principled individuals, who would not stoop to crass crossover ploys. It simply will not happen. DFL rectitude will rule, and the GOP inner party and its primary-day sympathizers will be left alone to their ballot decision making which shall set their fate.
Hence, let the circular firing squad begin (or will we see the Gipper's famed Eleventh Amendment trumping pre-primary factional squabbling).
Will Republican candidate debate-ducking continue or even become more widespread, with spending upon spending being the GOP way? As things now appear, anyone in that party actually seeking a debate does so because of flagging chances, and GOP debate seekers likely will be called RINO by the rest of them, for not simply caving in and such.
After the series of dreadfully boring GOP presidential debates before the Obama reelection, one can see how GOP strategists have to dread their candidates opening their mouths in public. Each a "conservative," saying that, each wanting to lower your taxes, saying that, each wanting the orange card mailing in their favor for primary and general election purposes. It is who the Republicans are.
Even those RINOs in the pack, they almost universally want the orange card mailing in their favor. It's part of their genetic code. And NRA lobbyists love each of them greatly. Especially those left standing at general election time. Orange card choice then is beyond doubt, always GOP, and should not be anyone's deciding issue. How things should be is not how things are. And NRA lobbyists love that fact.
The earth would shake off its axis, if ever even a smidgen of "tax the rich" were ever to show up as a policy position among the Elephants. But hey folks, if elected, they are going to tax somebody. Go figure.